"1989 certainly represents one of those moments. yet, when IPRA held its 12th General Conference in August 1988, few of the participants imagined that within the space of 13 months popular social movements would topple socialist regimes in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and the German Democratic Republic.Nobody imagined the Berlin wall or the wire fence between Hungary and Austria being dismantled. Even fewer contemplated the overthrow of the Ceaucescu regime in Rumania, pluralistic politics in Bulgaria, a single German economy or a reunited Germany."

"1989 certainly represents one of those moments. yet, when IPRA held its 12th General Conference in August 1988, few of the participants imagined that within the space of 13 months popular social movements would topple socialist regimes in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and the German Democratic Republic.Nobody imagined the Berlin wall or the wire fence between Hungary and Austria being dismantled. Even fewer contemplated the overthrow of the Ceaucescu regime in Rumania, pluralistic politics in Bulgaria, a single German economy or a reunited Germany."